Donald Trump said we and Russia began negotiating the Ukrainian war.
President Donald Trump said Washington and Moscow will terminate negotiations on the Ukrainian war after talking to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Wednesday's call showed that Washington would withdraw support for Ukraine after nearly three years of war, a huge shift in U.S.-Russia relations.
Trump wrote on his truth social platform that he and Putin “agree to work together, very close”, expressed confidence that the negotiations would be “successful” and vowed “no more life!” he said, A leader also agreed to visit each other's countries.
The president told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he and Putin would meet in Saudi Arabia. The talks will be chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
The Kremlin said the appeal between Trump and Putin, which lasted nearly 90 minutes, is the highest level since the first full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Global oil prices fell, with Brent crude falling 2.3% to $75.25 a barrel. Since the invasion, the United States has been one of the Western countries that imposes sanctions on Russia's energy sector.
Trump spoke with Putin before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called, suggesting that the United States may not want to work with Kiev or the EU to adopt a common strategy to bring Russia to the negotiating table.
The United States also joined NATO's guarantees with Ukraine's hopes and restored its borders to a period before Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
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A face-to-face meeting will be the first U.S.-Russia summit since Trump's predecessor Joe Biden met in Geneva in 2021.
Trump said he will deal with Putin mainly by phone, but they will also meet in person three times.
“We hope he will come here, I will go there” but “we meet in Saudi Arabia for the first time to see if we did anything” and added: “We know the crown prince, I think it's “becoming a Very good place”.
“I'm just trying to get peace here,” Trump said. “I don't care except that I don't want to stop being killed by millions of people.”
Russia maintained a firm stance before any negotiations, demanding that NATO deploy most of the post-Cold War in Eastern Europe and insisted that Ukraine recognizes its annexation of four Southeastern regions, none of which have been fully controlled.
The Kremlin's readings on the phone are more restrictive than those of Trump and does not recommend Russia is ready to soften its stance.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Russian president agreed with Trump: “It's time for our country to work together” and “a long-term solution can be achieved through peaceful negotiations”, but Warning, “Resolution is crucial, and this is crucial to solving the problem. Causes of the conflict”.
He said Putin had invited Trump to Moscow and was preparing to meet with U.S. officials to discuss “issues of common interest.” Peskov told reporters that the two leaders also discussed bilateral economic cooperation and Iran's nuclear program.
Trump said he had directed Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Shi Steve Witkoff leads the U.S. negotiating team. Trump's roster does not include his Ukrainian envoy Keith Kellogg.
Zelenskyy said in a call with Trump that the two had “long conversations about the possibility of achieving peace.”
The Ukrainian leader said Trump had told him “the details of the conversation with Putin”. They also discussed “technical capabilities, including drones and other modern productions,” he said.
Senior Ukrainian officials said Zelensky also introduced Trump to the situation on the battlefield and the fight between North Korean troops and Russian troops in the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukrainian troops invaded last year.
Trump later wrote in “Social Truth” that his call with Zelenskyy “was going well.”
But Trump's announcement confirmed concerns in Kiev and Europe that the United States would not involve negotiations in the EU or European capital regarding Ukraine's future and has turned to a more reconciliational stance in Moscow.
In a statement, six European countries, including Germany, France and the United Kingdom, said they were ready to “strengthen our support for Ukraine”, adding that they were committed to “the Russian war in the face of the Russian war, they all Committed to “independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
They added: “We want to discuss with our American allies the way forward. Ukraine and Europe must participate in any negotiations.”
Earlier on Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that Ukraine's lasting peace “must include strong security assurances” to ensure that the war does not break out again. He added that Washington “does not believe in NATO's Ukrainian members as a realistic result”.
Hegseth told Brussels' NATO allies that Washington believes that “capable European and non-European troops” should be deployed in post-conflict Ukraine to ensure peace, but not in our peace, And no NATO soldier there will be shared coverage of the defense clause by the alliance.
Chart by Steven Bernard